NVIDIA has launched its 26th Graduate Scholarship, aimed at global PhD students, with a maximum award of $60,000 per recipient, and offers mentorship and technical support. The application deadline is October 30.

The program supports and accelerates research in areas related to artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous driving, computer graphics, robotics, healthcare, high-performance computing, networking, parallel systems, security and privacy, and quantum computing. Applicants must have completed their first year of PhD studies. Evaluation criteria include student quality, research quality, and relevance to NVIDIA, including potential impacts on future graphics processor design, performance, or applications. Award notifications are scheduled for January 15, 2027. Before the award year begins, recipients must complete an internship at NVIDIA's research office during the summer of 2027, with locations including the U.S., Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Israel, and Taiwan.

Since 2002, over 220 scholarships have been awarded, totaling approximately $8 million. The previous round selected 10 recipients for the 2026-2027 academic year, covering topics such as embodied intelligence, neural rendering, agent safety, and general robotics. Application materials include a research proposal of up to two pages with references.

Talent is flowing from university labs to corporate research positions. The buyers are chip companies looking to secure PhD candidates relevant to their topics, while the sellers are students who align their summer research with these topics. This event is driven by the annual recruitment window. Beneficiaries are PhD students who enter the mentorship network and receive computational support; the pressure is on university labs and other chip companies competing for the same pool of candidates. The $60,000 buys a year-long project commitment plus a mandatory internship, not an unconditional scholarship.

Source: Public Information